On the cover: Modern Marvel
Fitz and Lindsay Schultze co-create a deeply personal home that aligns their personal and professional pursuits.
Photo by Jeremy Blum
2025 Sophisticated Giving Charity Register
A comprehensive guide to charitable giving in Louisville.
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Highlights from the September/October 2025 issue:
Ranch Dressing
For more than a decade, interior designer Libby Rush of Bittners has helped guide the transformation of a modest rural retreat into a gracious and spacious family home.
Text: Bridget Cottrell
Photos: Kate Leichhart
Muscles Are the Currency of Aging: Build Strength Now and Improve Your Tomorrow
It's no secret that we lose muscle mass as we age, with the average adult losing three to five percent each decade, negatively impacting their ability to live full, independent lives. Muscles are truly the currency of aging - the more we bank today, the better off we'll be tomorrow.
Beyond the aesthetic appeal of muscles, they:
• Provide the foundation for strength, balance, posture, and energy, allowing us to move and enjoy the people, places, and things around us.
• Power essential internal functions like the heart pumping blood throughout the body, and gut muscles moving food through the digestive system.
• Burn more calories than fat, which can help with weight management.
• Aid in boosting metabolism and controlling glucose levels.
Text: Dr. Carl Paige, the CMO and co-founder of Medical Transformation Center
Cover Story: Modern Marvel
There is no shortage of horror stories about couples whose relationship was brought to the brink by the stresses of a major home renovation. However, for Fitz and Lindsay Schultze, the opposite is the case. In fact, both their faces light up as they recall their most recent project, nearly two years in the making. "It gives us something to talk about," joked Lindsey, who carried out the interior design.
Fitz said the flat roof of the modest International Style home, built in 1938, that they acquired in 2018, is one of the characteristics that drew them to the property, not to mention its enviable acreage abutting the golf course of the Louisville Country Club. Now more than double its original footprint, one cannot help but appreciate their foresight in creating one of Louisville's most unique residences. The couple opted to live in the house while mulling over floor plans and sketching out their vision, which was brought to life by architect Doug Schmidt and a “truly collaborative relationship” with construction firm Rock Paper Hammer.
Text: Bridget Cottrell
Right: Jeremy Blum
Seeing you Seeing
On view from November 14-21 during regular business hours at the art gallery and gardens within Bittners' interior design studio (731 E. Main Street in downtown Louisville), Seeing You Seeing is a unique collaborative photographic exchange between artists Natalie Christensen and Jim Eyre, shaped by distance, technology, and time. Working from opposite sides of the Atlantic, Eyre from England and Christensen from the United States, the photographers have established and nurtured a creative relationship that began on social media and over six years, evolved to their use of photography to respond to one another in an ongoing rhythm of image and reply resulting in a visual conversation shaped and shared by attention and trust.
Photos courtesy of Natalie Christensen (top) and Jim Eyre (bottom)
A New Chapter Begins at the West End School
For the first time in its 20-year history, the West End School, a tuition-free school located in Louisville’s Chickasaw neighborhood, has expanded its programming to include girls. A formal ribbon cutting for the new expansion where the girls will attend class was attended by Head of School Dr. Greg Ross, Governor Andy Beshear, Senator Morgan McGarvey and Mayor Craig Greenberg, along with community leaders, top executives, parents of students and their friends and family members.
Sophisticated Eats
Society Calendar, Presented by Kentucky Select Properties
Happenings of note in September & October
Celebrations are better when they’re shared! Think beyond a Facebook or Instagram post by commemorating special events in our Sophisticated Celebrations section. Send your high-resolution images with a brief description to bridget@slmag.net.
Is there an upcoming event you’d like us to cover? If so, drop us a message below with the details!
Sophisticated Society
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Sophisticated Society 〰️
Photos by Tony Bailey
Photos by Tony Bailey
Photos by Ashley Stinson
Photos by Ashley Stinson
Art Squared Closing Party
Photos by Chad Henle
Davis Jewelers + Longines
Photos by Chad Henle
Tribute Polo Match
Photos by Chad Henle
USA Cares Gala
Photos by Chad Henle
Tuxes & Tails Gala
Photos by Chad Henle
Rooting for Robert
Photos by Chad Henle
Backing the Blue
Photos by Ashley Stinson
"If someone wrote a novel about your life, your home would be its own character," remarked Jake Cypress, a quirky independent contractor I came across on NextDoor who helped me knock out a laundry list of projects, most notably taking down a second-floor wall that made the circa 1870s structure a single-family residence again for the first time in many decades.
When Matthew and I became engaged, we embarked on a serious (and seriously frustrating) home search with rockstar real estate agent Joanne Owen in an insanely challenging market. Initially, the hunt instilled angst at the thought of leaving my home in someone else's hands. As the search dragged on, I adopted an attitude of gratitude for the extra time to say a long goodbye to my happy place, methodically turning items from my "honey-do" list to "done" and making tough decisions about what to keep, sell, donate, or discard.
Text: Bridget Cottrell - bridget@slmag.net.
From the Editor-In-Chief
Get to Know Us
Editor-In-Chief
Bridget Cottrell
A co-founder of the company, Bridget is Editor-In-Chief of both the Lexington and Louisville editions in addition to serving as the editorial director for shared content across all Sophisticated Living issues. Originally intending to become an archaeologist, she transfers her global curiosity into content that takes multiple perspectives into account.
bridget@slmag.net
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